ATTA - Small Tour Operator Forum

In 2006, Priscilla Macy (Global Sojourns) and the ATTA began talking about ideas to put together a small adventure travel tour operators forum for ATTA Members only – a comfortable place where leaders in a similar “place” might exchange adventure travel industry matters or current questions concerning the development, growth, inspirations, challenges, issues, etc., facing smaller-sized tour operators worldwide.   

Starting Wednesday, April 18th at 1:00PM PDT, the ATTA will host the first in a series of ATTA Small Tour Operators Forum meetings – for ATTA Members only. If you’re interested in joining us next week after you’ve had a chance to review the date, time, and concept featured below – and you meet the Guidelines for Participation noted below, please RSVP to .

Small Tour Operator Forum
Start Date:  Wednesday, April 18, 2007 – 1:00PM PDT  

STO Forum Concept:
An ATTA-facilitated assembly for the discussion of and exchange of adventure travel industry matters or current questions concerning the development, growth, inspirations, challenges, issues, etc., facing smaller-sized tour operators worldwide.  

Agenda Summary:
ATTA suggests the following agenda item for this first meeting (details below) – subsequent agendas will be generally crafted prior to the closure of each meeting:

• Review the Purpose, Spirit and Framework of this nascent Small Tour Operator Forum
• Consider parameters of the group, discuss optimal size of the STO Forum
• Consider focused “recruitment” strategy to draw additional participants as needed
• Brainstorm on the most pressing topics of the day (e.g., insurance, marketing, PR, training, best practices, sustainable solutions, voluntourism, hiring, SEO, Web, crises, etc.), so that we might chew on those with the most common priority for participants prior to the next meet
• Briefly reflect on the day’s meeting, feedback, etc.
• Consider possible online networking/community-building solutions to compliment/support the Forum
• Discuss Next Steps, Next Meeting/s  

Spirit of the STO Forum:
Our (shared) STO Forum is intended as a think-tank of sorts.  It’s an open meeting place for tour operators who wish to share and deliberate strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats facing their smaller operations within the adventure travel industry sector.   

It’s a place where tour operators may reveal the real challenges of day-to-day operations, discuss growth pains, explore issues, and zero in on solutions and opportunities that can help to improve operators’ businesses.  

Competitors will contribute to the forum.  With this in mind, it is understood that the STO Forum is designed as a place to openly share, expose weaknesses and assorted challenges.  Challenges/issues will be respected, honored and held in confidence with other forum members unless specific permissions are made to the contrary.   

Key issues are expected to emerge from this forum.  Recognizing this, STO Forum participants recognize that, for the good of the industry at large, specific challenges may be interpreted and later communicated in general terms to contribute to a broader body of knowledge that can deliver positive contributions to others.  

Ideas and topics emanating from the STO Forum are likely to serve as fodder for AdventureTravelNews™ topics, contribute to Adventure Travel World Summit planning and sessions, the launch of new, ATTA Member benefit initiatives, help to drive ATTA Member benefits, training, Web casts, etc.  STO Forum participants are encouraged to contribute to AdventureTravelNews - editorial contributions will be seriously considered, including Op-Ed pieces intended to be shared with more than 9,000 adventure travel industry professionals.  

Solutions focused, the STO Forum is meant to allow for provocative and thoughtful dialogue that leads to progressive and productive outcomes vs. the notion of simply a new forum to air out complaints.  Same goes for any online community venue created as a result of this group.  

Though initially launched and facilitated by the ATTA, which primarily provides the mechanism by which to hold each forum, no single leadership structure is expected to emerge.  The “charter” group will begin small, involving a handful or two of small tour operators.  It is this early-adopter group, this budding community that will address the initial scope, and then move to recommend next steps, size of group, frequency, etc.  

STO Forum participants will hope for regular participation, but will not hold individuals to a hardened schedule.  In fact, the content, style and outcome, we hope, will be so compelling that will not be an issue.  If the meetings event hint at becoming tiring, irrelevant or cumbersome, it’s incumbent upon the participants to openly share the concerns – we all agree to keep the topics fresh, relevant and moving.  

STO Forum participants will be interested in keeping meetings fresh and creative.  We are open to bringing in experts, contributors, and changing the overall style of each meeting – if we so desire.   A debate one meeting may be in order, while a greenlight brainstorming may rule the next.  The group will deliberate in short order, and hopefully, move to action in setting the next meeting’s agenda.  It’s quite possible that special “task forces” – for lack of a better term – may emerge to take on ownership of an issue so that the group may continue to evolve and address other pressing topics.  

Bureaucracy…hmmm…we don’t want that.  The concept is a fast-moving, community of thinkers.  While process will be important to fuel focus and solution, it should not drive this Forum.  Let’s all see to it that this Forum doesn’t devolve into process, policies, rules, etc.   

Initial Guidelines for Participation to Make the Most of This Forum:

• Gross revenues under $1 million
• Owner, principal, President or General Manager
• Commitment to active involvement while attending any given meeting  

Forum – Initial Operational Concepts  

Meeting Venue:
To get things started, phone conferences – the ATTA will arrange for a toll-free conference call – here’s the info for this first call:  

Toll free: 866-414-2828
Non-U.S. & Canada: 1-973-528-0000
Access code: 885891#

Note: Please press *6 to mute your line  

Duration:
Initially, 60 minutes…the early group will discuss most productive call duration, but perhaps, so that we might get “into” a topic, we could move each call to 90 minutes, lending sufficient time to explore topics.